Taiwan 16-Tile Mahjong Rules

Mahjong (májiang [pronunciation guide])
is an ancient Chinese game, probably dating back thousands
of years. I learned to play it while living in
Taiwan
(Republic of China), so the rules I'll summarize are going to be
closer to the original Chinese rules than the significantly modified
Western version of the game. (You might be interested to compare these
rules with the variation of Mahjong played in
Hong Kong.)

Many thanks to Steve Lin, Annie Cheel and Pam Didner for help in remembering
the rules and helping me translate my Chinese notes.

Note: By "Mahjong", I am referring to the ancient
four-player game, not the solitaire game (often called "Shanghai" or
"Taipei" or even "Mahjongg") which is popular on computers. The
solitaire game uses the same playing pieces as Mahjong, but otherwise
bears no similarity to this game. (About like the similarities between
the Western games of Poker and Canfield Solitaire--they both use the
same cards, but are vastly different games.)

Object

Mahjong is quite similar to the game of Rummy. (At least that's
what people have told me. I haven't played Rummy yet, so I have to
take their word for it.)

The object of the game is to obtain a collection of
"tiles" to form a specific hand before
your opponents do. The tiles you hold are then scored up and totalled.
After several hands are played, the player with the highest score
wins. (Some play Mahjong for money, much as you would Poker, where the "score"
is paid in nickles, quarters, $100 bills, whatever.)

The Game Pieces

Mahjong is played with:

A set of thick rectangular
"tiles", which look
sort of like fat dominoes.

Four racks to help hold the players' hands. (optional)

Four "rulers" to help set up the tile configuration at the beginning
of each hand. (optional)

Counters for score-keeping. These are often in the form of
"sticks" with dots printed on them to denote the value each
represents. You may also use poker chips, a scorepad and pencil,
M&M's, money, whatever you wish.

Three dice.

A special die marked with the
four wind directions, used to
denote the "prevailing wind of the round" (see below). There are
variations to the device used for this purpose. Some sets use a
die, some use a spinner or dial.

Seating

The four players sit around a square table, with each seat representing
one of the four compass directions. This is often referred to as "facing
the East (South, West, North) Wind". There is no small amount of
opinion (even superstition) among some players as to which wind gives them
the best luck in playing the game, so to be fair, the players need to find
a mutually-acceptable method of determining who gets to sit in which seat.

(You'll notice that the "wind" directions don't correspond with the
true compass directions--they are symbolic names for the four wind directions,
and this arrangement of East, South, West and North is used consistently
throughout Mahjong.)

If nobody really cares where they sit, then you simply sit wherever and
start playing.

Other methods include drawing one of each of the "wind tiles" from the
game:

[EAST / SOUTH / WEST / NORTH]

Place them face down, shuffle them, and let each player draw one at random.
Some groups like to roll dice to see who gets to pick a tile first (and so
on, ad absurdium).

Once all players have chosen their seats, they proceed to set up the game.

Setting the Game Parameters

The players must decide on two things before beginning to play the game:

Number of Rounds to Play:
A typical game consists of 4 rounds of at least 4 hands per round.
The players may choose to play any multiple of 4 rounds they
wish, but to be fair to all, the game should not be stopped before the
pre-determined number of rounds is completed.

Value of Hand Scoring Units:
At the end of each hand, the winner's score is measured in units called
"tái" (tái). The players
should now agree on how much each tái is worth. For
example, if you decide that each tái is worth 5 points (or
5 cents), then a hand which scored 4 (four tái)
would be worth 4 x 5 = 20 points (or 20 cents).

Starting Points

The customs for giving out starting points varies and really doesn't matter
much, as long as everyone is given the same number of chips, counters or points
to begin with. Often, people start with 2,000 points. Of course, if you're
playing for money, people start with however much money they bring to the
table.

If you use standard Mahjong counters, 2,000 points is given out
using 29 counters of the following denominations:

Quantity

Value

Markings

10

2

2 black dots

8

10

10 black dots

9

100

1 red dot

2

500

5 red dots

Some sets use colored "coins" which you can also use to keep score.
Here's one possibility:

Quantity

Value

Color

10

2

blue

8

10

green

9

100

red

2

500

orange

Turn Sequence

The game progresses for the previously-determined number of rounds
(usually four, or a multiple of four),
after which the scores are tallied and the player with the highest
score wins the game.

Each round has a wind associated with it, called the "round wind",
which influences the score of certain hands (see below).
For the first round, the round wind is East.

The person sitting in the East chair is the first dealer.

Each round consists of four or more hands.
The hands progress according to these steps:

If the dealer wins the hand, he or she remains the dealer for the next hand.
Otherwise, the person to the dealer's right becomes the dealer for the
next hand. The round is over when the fourth player finishes his or her
turn as dealer (by losing the hand).

At the beginning of each new round, the round wind shifts one seat
counterclockwise (i.e., the round wind for the 2nd round is South, followed
by West, and finally North).

Ending the Game

When the predetermined number of rounds have been
played, the game is over and the player with the highest score is
declared the winner.